Jammerz Bar gets its liquor license back

The owner of Jammerz Bar, in Globe, is speaking out after its liquor license was reinstated last Wednesday morning.

The downtown bar’s license was suspended Nov. 14, following the Nov. 11 mass shooting that ultimately left three people dead and one other critically injured.

On Tuesday, Nov. 27, Director John Cocca, with the Arizona Department of Liquor Licenses and Control (AZDLLC), issued an order vacating the suspension, after concluding his preliminary investigation and receiving proof that Sara Hardy had “adopted and will implement a public safety plan for the licensed premises, which has and will continue to include employee safety training.”

“The very next day after the department summarily suspended the liquor license, Sara met with the director in Phoenix and offered to provide a safety plan and reinstruction for all her employees,” said Hardy’s attorney, Peter H. Schelstraete, of Schelstraete Law Offices in Tempe. “The department finally accepted that offer two weeks later.”

In her Nov. 30 statement, Hardy said, “We are of course relieved that the director has vacated his order summarily suspending our liquor license, but we were still closed for two weeks.”

Describing Jammerz as a small business in a small community, Hardy said, “We are broken-hearted over the senselessness of this random and tragic event and the loss being felt by our family and friends in our little community.”

She went on to say that the AZDLLC added “more emotional stress to our situation,” by summarily suspending Jammerz’ license without any notice or hearing, with the gunman already arrested and any seemingly immediate danger contained.

“We never received any explanation as to what threat we were still supposed to be closed to protect the public against. We have no history of violence in our establishment and no prior history of liquor law violations of any sort,” Hardy said. “The liquor department’s summary suspension created the impression for some in the Globe community that we were somehow responsible for this horrible event, when there was nothing, we could have done to prevent this senseless tragedy.”

Cocca lifted the Nov. 14 suspension as of 6 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 28, when Hardy was allowed to remove the department’s postings on the door, re-open and conduct business once again.

A post on the Facebook page for Jammerz Bar indicated that it would re-open at 3 p.m. Monday, Dec. 3.

Assistant Director Jeffery Trillo, with the AZDLLC’s Licensing and Administration Division, said last Thursday that since the investigation is ongoing, the department would refrain from further comment at this time.

Craig Miller, with Arizona Liquor Industry Consultants in Mesa, worked on the case in conjunction Schelstraete.

“I know Sara from Jammerz thinks of her employees as family and this has been especially tough for her,” Miller said last Wednesday.

“The business has suffered a significant loss of revenue due to the department’s summarily suspension, and some members of the community have confused the suspension as some sort of fault on behalf of the bar,” he told the Silver Belt. “This was a horrible tragedy that no one could foresee and no actions by the employees could have prevented.”

Miller went on to say, “I was born and raised in your community and will always think of Globe-Miami as home. We pray each day for the Globe, Miami and San Carlos communities.”